I heard that BMD is going to release a Nikon F Mount for the URSA Mini Pro. My question is now: Will it be mechanical or supports electronic aperture adjustment? I have a Nikkor 200-500 tele lens, which has no mechanical aperture controller and regulate the exposure via ND filters and shutter time is kind of difficult...

Works with AF-D and AF-S G series lenses but it does not have electronic pins so won't work with AF-S E series lenses.

If there is enough demand for electronic control we could look at doing a version with the electronic pins but as Nikon do not publish or share their protocol information it would take a long time for us to implement in camera. If you would be keen on this then please speak to Nikon about it and request that they provide us with this information to support these in our cameras.

Works with AF-D and AF-S G series lenses but it does not have electronic pins so won't work with AF-S E series lenses.

If there is enough demand for electronic control we could look at doing a version with the electronic pins but as Nikon do not publish or share their protocol information it would take a long time for us to implement in camera. If you would be keen on this then please speak to Nikon about it and request that they provide us with this information to support these in our cameras.

Electronic control would certainly be nice. I'm hoping to pick up a UMP in the near future and would love the option with my Nikon lenses.--c

Thanks Tim, I didn't see the mount at NAB, only a few not so,good videos of it on display. The Metabones adapters not use simple lever either, it is also a Cam action rotational ring. Nice touch BM!Also, there are only a few Nikon E mount lenses released, and most video shooters have the older Nikon lenses anyway, so building a Nikon electronic mount would not be that muchmof an advantage, except to have lens data (not lens control) sent to the camera, likemthe Zeiss ZF2 lenses do. This might be more doable, Zeiss worked it out, so BM could also.Cheers

thomas bruegger wrote:I am fine with the manual iris control, it would be nicea if the f-stop would be passed on to the monitor or make it to meta data. so some kind of communication would be very nice.

The only reason I'd really want electronic control is for when I have the cam on a gimbal... makes life a bit easier. And yes, being able to capture that meta would be nice as well.---c

Last edited by chris.white on Fri May 12, 2017 4:00 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The BM Nikon mount would need a motor in it to control the Iris by remote. The big difference from what Tim said, is the BM Nikon mount has a very nice, dampened long through Iris ring to control the Nikon G (and F lenses, set to f/16-22) lens Iris. This is a lot better than the simple,little, hard to use lever in a F/G to EF adapter, and every time you add an adapter, you weaken the lens to camera connection, and introduce the chance for more Focus errors and lens movement -- keeping a lens on a single mount, no adapters required, is the advantage of an interchangeable lens mount in the first place.

If you need auto lens/remote Iris and focus control for gimbal work, youmare stuck with Canon EF lenses.Nikon is not going to share, just like Sony will not share the E mount protocols. Besides, there are not hat many Nikon F (electronic lenses out there currently, so your selection is going to be limited, if BM had a E versionmofmrhe Nikon F mount. You have five primes from 28 to 135mm and three "push/pull" zoom lenses.Cheers

Denny Smith wrote:If you need auto lens/remote Iris and focus control for gimbal work, youmare stuck with Canon EF lenses.Nikon is not going to share, just like Sony will not share the E mount protocols. Besides, there are not hat many Nikon F (electronic lenses out there currently, so your selection is going to be limited, if BM had a E versionmofmrhe Nikon F mount. You have five primes from 28 to 135mm and three "push/pull" zoom lenses.Cheers

Red have a electronic Nikon mount at least they had one for the epic, worked great. the Nikon 24-70 G and 70-200 G are my main lenses on the Ursa Mini i simply love these, as mentioned i dont think that electronic iris control would be that big of a deal over manual control, but it would be essential to see the f-stop youre at, on the monitor and to save it to meta data. otherwise there really is no real advantage than simply put an adapter between the lens and the canon mount. there are no mechanical problems as long as you use a well made Adapter like the ones from novoflex.

The Nikon 24-70 G and 70-200 G Lenses do Not have an electronic Iris, it is controlled by a mechanical lever on the backmofmrh lens, somthismwill work fine on the BM Nikon mount. What is missing is the electronic feedback displays for the f/stop and lens data chip, that is on these lenses, and the Focus motor control which is what the lens contact pins are used for, not controlling the Iris f/stop.DS

Tim, my original hardworking BMB4 mounted on my Mini 4.6K is feeling a little envious of the new packaging for the Pro mounts! Of course, I had to explain to him, that we're just not Pro. Kids, they just don't understand these concepts. After all, he's doing a great job.

That new version of the B4 mount will need a new name to avoid confusion: BMPB4.

As with all of our other Pro mount kits it comes with a nice padded blow moulded case, screws and a shim kit. We are aiming at August release.

Hi Tim,Do you know if it will be an option to buy an ursa mini pro already kitted and shimmed with the nikon turret as opposed to buying an (in my case, unnecessary, since i only use nikon lenses) canon mount and having to spend extra on the nikon mount to replace it? It would be great to have it available as a package option purchase and would seem to make good economic sense for blackmagic as the canon mounts with their electronic controls are likely more expensive to produce, much like you offered the micro 4/3ds and canon mount versions of the original cinema camera?

Uli Plank wrote:Don't forget economics of scale. There is more Canon glass around, in particular with aspiring filmmakers.

Errr.... wrong. There is over a hundred million Nikon lenses made (and many more from 3rd parties), that is more than how many Canon EF lenses have been made.

Yes, there are – but these are with photographers. Don't get me wrong, I like Nikon glass myself. But I'm quite sure that BM did their homework as a manufacturer when they calculated prices. There are many more potential clients who started filming with Canon DSLRs – after all the 5D started the whole hype – than those coming from Nikon. Nikon never got video really right, even if they built very nice film cameras for amateurs long time ago.

It's all about target groups, so a nicely made mechanical mount in low numbers may well be more expensive than an electronic one without such an aperture ring for many buyers.

The mechanical Nikon F min t probably costs more to make the the EF mount. Yes, more Nikon F mount lenses have been produced than Canon EF, in that the Nikon F mount remains basically unchanged since the 1960's so you can add on all the older Nikon F lense, but most of the 60-80's glass is no longer in use. So adding up the Nikon lenses vs Canon glass since 1987, when the Canon EF mount (then called EOS) was released, it would be a close tie, with 3rd party lenses possibly tipping the scale to Nikon.

As a long time Nikon F lens user, they are here today, will be here tomorrow (Nikon added their new E electronic Iris version, but still are making the mechanical F/G lenses too). While Canon's lens mount history is here today, Gone tomorrow, as the Canon FD mount the was killed by Canon with the release of EF/EOS mounts.

Canon has managed a high market penetration of EF-mount lenses, and the same theird party lens makers offering Nikon F mounts, also offer/sell their lenses in a Canon EF mount (which had to be reversed eingineered reducing the amount of lenses being offered. And Canon, I like Nikon, entered the Video market with Cine specific lenses and cameras, and some of these lenses are very good.

In the film days of photography, Nikon had the Pro still photographer market tied up, and Canon was always in second, and often third place, until they came out with some nice long zoom FD lenses for wildlife/sports photography and toward the end of the FD era, started giving Nikon a good market competition in this area.

Today (unfortunately) Caonon has pulled into the no 1 slot with the digital DSLR prosummer / pro-market, while Nikon is in the No 2 slot production number wise, but Nikon is still a better Pro shooter investment, as you get a longer shooting life and better reliability from a Nikon Pro DSLR camera.

Canon has the lower end consumer market today, hands down, while Nikon is struggling here to keep the numbers up. Mirrorless cameras from Sony, Panasonic and Olympus are starting to give the big two a run for their money, especially with cameras like the GH5, but for Pro work demanding larger sensors and higher resolution, the full frame DSLR is still king in the Pro still photography world as larger sensor cameras are in the Pro Cine world.

Even if their are more Canon lenses in use than Nikon F, I still prefer the Nikon, on the average, most Nikon lenses will optically out perform Canon EF lenses (their are some Pro CanonEF lenses that are as good, but not many in this area), the Nikon mount is a tighter specification and build tolerances are tighter, so less lens mount compatibility issues, and since Nikon is in formthe long run, a better future investment, as Nikon F can be adapted more readily to a non Nikon camera (simple mechanical adapters vs complicated, more expensive electronic EF adapters). So Nikon mount is the better investment, in my experience. Canon is more of a use it today, and toss it out tomorrow product, short life time.

For Video/Cine work, Nikon is much quicker and more precise to use on non Canon EF mount cameras than the adapted EF lenses are. PL mount is better yet, and my current mount of choice for video work. Also, Nikon lenses do not require electronic in camera correction for CA and distortion control that the other lens makers, including Canon, rely on which,is why these lenses often cost less, they are not as good optically, without digital corrections, that Nikon, Zeiss and Voightlander do not require.

Canon EF lens mount, (except for the new Cine locking EF mount, yet another change) is too sloppy, no useable witness marks, Iris needs to be set by camera, etc, for serious Video/Cine work. But in the end, it boils down to budget and personal preferences as to which lens to use.

I'm eagerly anticipating the Nikon mount. Rightly or wrongly when I bought the Sigma 18-35 I went with Nikon mount. I'd just had an EF lens stop working due to electronics failure, so I thought it was worth going with a lens that wasn't relying on electronics to control the aperture.

I'm hoping the URSA Mini Pro becomes available with PL mount or Nikon as an all in one package.

chris.white wrote:I checked a bunch of authorized online retailers and didn't come up with anything.---c

Me too, checked with local authorised distributors and they all don't know anything, or heard anything at all. Also some of them called BlackMagic and they say that they have never released any statement regarding the official release of the Nikon mount. So what's up with this?

Shipping may mean the mount has left the factory in Singapore and is in transit to the regional centres fir worldwide distribution. So it might be another two weeks before retailers are going to see it. It is odd there are no preorders since the price has been announced.